Alternative histories of geography: conferences as disciplinary repository and repertoire

This paper is the first to use conference reports as an alternative archive for narrating the history of a discipline. Analysing 139 Journal of Historical Geography (1975–2025) such reports it argues that conferences direct us in new ways to where and when was studied by whom, and how. It proposes that we approach conference reports in two ways. First, as an alternative ‘repository’ of broader geographical knowledge and discussion. It traces wider debates (the transitions of feudalism and colonial settlement to forms of capitalism), subdisciplinary collaborations (population and landscape) and epistemological debates (quantitative, Marxist, postmodern and poststructural theory). Secondly, conference reports archive an alternative realm, a disciplinary ‘repertoire’ of experiences; the places where disciplinary and individual identities were forged. The contexts for this repertoire are explored (national, an Anglo-version of the international and local) before addressing the relatively scant traces of conference atmospheres (in terms of weather, food, sleep and drink) and debates over the representational capacities of both conferences and their reports. The paper concludes by asking what this method tells us afresh about the history of the discipline, and what it cannot.